


Revelations and Resolutions

by NerdofSpades



Series: Open Doors [14]
Category: Assassination Classroom, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Assassination Classroom winter break, Discussion of Death, Ethics debate, Gen, Quirk Discrimination (My Hero Academia), Quirkless Midoriya Izuku, questioning morals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-07
Updated: 2019-11-07
Packaged: 2021-01-25 01:17:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21347902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NerdofSpades/pseuds/NerdofSpades
Summary: The class knows about Korosensei's past now. They know who he was, what he did, and why he needs to die. They know everything. Izuku, like all of his classmates, doesn't know what to do with the information.In the meantime, Bitch-sensei has a few questions for Izuku as well.
Relationships: Class 3-E & Korosensei (Assassination Classroom), Irina Jelavić & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Inko & Midoriya Izuku, Midoriya Izuku & Yagi Toshinori | All Might
Series: Open Doors [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1350022
Comments: 16
Kudos: 509





	Revelations and Resolutions

Izuku moved in a daze. What was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to think? His teacher, the best teacher he’d ever had, the first one to care about him, wasn’t the villain he was led to believe he was. Korosensei was by no means innocent. He was an assassin. He was the Reaper. He’d killed hundreds, maybe even thousands, for profit. But he never deserved this.

He didn’t deserve to be used as a human test subject for some fucked up experiment. He didn’t deserve to be condemned to death for something outside of his control.

He had taken a group of lost and confused children and helped them find and nurture their strengths. He encouraged them. And they were supposed to kill him. Sure, they had always been supposed to kill him, but before they had believed he had blown up the moon. That this was all a conscious choice on his part. As much as they loved him, and as much as he took care of them, that had never erased what was to come.

He wasn’t an innocent man, but how were they supposed the _execute_ the man that gave them a future? How were they supposed to let him live, knowing it would condemn the world?

When he came home the first night, he cried. He didn’t sleep, looking up everything he could. Trying to find a loophole. Trying to find morals to guide him.

He found nothing. Of course, he didn’t. The government wasn’t going to let this information be easy to find, and the media didn’t want to acknowledge the messy side of heroics. The hard choices.

In the morning, he was dull and lifeless. Just going through the motions. He knew his mom could tell, but he couldn’t bring himself to do anything about it. He just kept moving. His mom put him to bed within half an hour of seeing him up. And he broke down again. She tried to ask what was wrong but got no answers.

Things continued like that, for the first few weeks. Izuku knew just about everyone around him noticed. He knew Sentoki-sensei was going easier on him, even if she didn’t say anything just yet, waiting for him to come to her. Yagi-san noticed, too, but he didn’t do much other than send him concerned looks most of the time. Izuku was grateful for that. At least he could feel like he was actually doing something productive at the beach.

“Yagi-san?” Izuku started as he sat on the sand slumped against one of the newer washing machines. He stared blankly at the water bottle in his loose grip. “What would you do if there was… someone, and for reasons outside of their control, they were going to hurt a lot of people?”

Yagi-san didn’t answer at first, watching Izuku closely. “I suppose that depends on the specifics,” he answered. “What brought this up?”

Izuku shrugged, still not looking up.

Yagi-san hummed thoughtfully to himself. “I suppose you… do what you have to do. I don’t like to say it, but no one is entitled to causing others harm, no matter the circumstances. You might need to separate them from others or get them some kind of treatment. But you do what you need to to cause the least amount of damage.”

Yeah, like a bunch of middle schoolers were going to be able to find a cure. They didn’t have the resources or the background. Even with Korosensei’s help, they probably wouldn’t get very far.

“And if you don’t have time for that? Like, say it’s related to their quirk and they’re in the middle of some kind of meltdown?”

Yagi-san moved to sit next to Izuku. “And what kind of quirk would we be talking about here? Hypothetically?”

Izuku hesitated. Should he answer this? Yagi-san had probably realized Izuku was not talking about hypotheticals. “I don’t know,” he answered, scowling as he took a gulp of his water. “Something that they can’t control. Something that would have some kind of discharge over a large area, and you can’t call on someone like Eraserhead.”

Yagi-san sighed softly. “I suppose, if I am absolutely forced to choose between one person with an out of control quirk and, say a city, I would save the city. I would have no choice but to kill them or do whatever kind of damage would get them to stop. Keep it to a minimum and keep it quick and clean. Honor them and mourn them. Be merciful but remember that they are not worth more than the masses.”

Izuku nodded slowly. “Thanks, All Might.”

“Are you going to tell me why you’re thinking about this?” Yagi-san asked again.

Izuku shrugged again, “Just some old news article.” He took another gulp of water and pushed himself back to his feet. “Let’s get back to work.”

Izuku could feel Yagi-san watching him but elected to ignore it. Better to pretend nothing was wrong and not answer the questions than to let All Might know exactly what was going on.

* * *

Izuku was silent through Nagisa-kun’s proposal and the subsequent fight with Karma-kun. They both had points. They both mentioned things Izuku had felt and thought about over the break. Both sides tugged at him. Izuku watched his classmates make their arguments and state their cause. To kill or to save. His heart was being torn. He had to make a choice.

It was his turn. His eyes burned, and his vision blurred as tears fell. “I want to save you, Korosensei. I want to save you so bad. I can’t condemn you to death for something outside of your control. But I don’t think we can. A cure… this kind of research takes entire teams of specialized scientists years to complete. We have two scientists, and, like Terasaka said, they’re at a college level. Not a doctorate. They can’t replicate a full team. Even if they could, we have months, not years, and no equipment. We can’t… we can’t do this ourselves.”

Izuku’s head dropped as he furiously wiped at the tears falling. “But I can’t just… I’ll sit out of this one. Whatever the class chooses, I’ll go with. I can’t bring myself to risk the world, but I can’t just let you die either.”

Korosensei’s tentacle rested on Izuku’s head, carefully ruffling his hair. “I understand, Midoriya-kun. It’s a hard decision, especially for someone like you, who cares so openly about so many people with all your heart. You’ll need to make these choices someday, but it doesn’t have to be today.”

Izuku nodded, sucking in deep breaths as he tried to get his crying under control. It was alright. He probably wouldn’t come across a situation like this again anytime soon anyway. By then he’ll be more prepared.

* * *

“Izuku-kun,” Bitch-sensei spoke up, tearing her eyes away from the fighting below them for a moment, “there’s something I’ve been wondering about for a while. You… you’re one the smartest and hardest working students in the class. Your grades shot up with barely any help from us at all. How on earth did _you_ wind up in 3-E. I mean, I understand Karma-kun. But you?”

Izuku winced at the question. “Grades…” he started slowly, trying to figure out the best way to explain this. “Bitch-sensei, you… you were raised as an assassin, right?”

Bitch-sensei blinked at him. “Yeah?” she answered. “What about it?”

"You and Korosensei and Karasuma-sensei all tell us the same thing. ‘Do not judge someone by their quirk. Anyone can be a threat of any number of reasons.’ For an assassin, that’s pretty central. For heroes, it should be too, but…” Izuku shrugged.

Bitch-sensei frowned at him. “I always thought that was just normal common sense.”

“To an extent, yeah,” Izuku agreed, “but the world doesn’t use a lot of common sense. People are judged for their quirks all the time. The majority of 3-E has either a mutation quirk or a quirk people call villainous. Both of those groups deal with a lot of prejudice and hate. It’s… a mess, to put it lightly.” Izuku winced as Kanzaki-san had her throat “slit” by Karma-kun. “I deal with similar problems because I’m quirkless.

“Aldera was a blessing at first. No one really liked me or the fact that I scored so high, but with how this school is built, my grades provided me with a level of protection in class and on school grounds. No one wanted to risk touching one of the teachers’ golden eggs. But they quickly figured out they just needed to not get caught. The most determined ones found ways to get at me where the adults wouldn’t see or hear anything. And… well, no one listens to the quirkless kid crying wolf. If I tried to report it, nothing would have happened. A small handful also figured out that, since my grades were the only thing protecting me, all they had to do was get my grades to tank, so they just… destroyed my school supplies. Repeatedly. It’s hard to keep up in classes if your notes never last more than a day, if you manage to take any at all.”

Bitch-sensei looked shocked. “People really do that?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Korosensei spoke up from behind Izuku. Izuku cast a quick glance at the few classmates that were out already. They were keeping a respectful distance and focusing on the match below them. “The world can be quite cruel to those that are deemed other or weaker. Many of our students fit in one or both of those categories. Even those with mutations or ‘villainous’ quirks often have fairly weak quirks that they can’t use to great effect in a fight. At least, not without the proper training. Compared to flashier quirks they will always be written off as an easy target.”

Izuku nodded. “That’s one of the reasons I’m aiming to be a hero. Yeah, I like helping people, but I also want to show them what I can do. That they were wrong to dismiss me.”

Korosensei laughed. “Oh, they have no idea how wrong they are to dismiss a quirkless individual. Midoriya-kun, a question?” Izuku hummed and glanced up at his teacher. “Did you ever figure out what my quirk is?”

Izuku shook his head. “Obviously, most of the… superhuman things you can do are a result of the experiment you were subjected to. Not only did you tell us that was the case, but it’s impossible for a single quirk to do all of that. It’s just too much. Unfortunately, differentiating between a quirk and a result of the antimatter is impossible without background information.”

“There is one other thing preventing you from identifying my quirk,” Korosensei said, his face gaining the green stripes that said he was feeling vastly superior. “I’m quirkless.”

Izuku’s jaw dropped. The most feared and dangerous assassin in history is quirkless. “You…”

“That’s why I was so quick to believe in you, Midoriya-kun. Yes, you have the skills and abilities yourself, which is essential, but if a quirkless person can be the top assassin in the world, a quirkless person can absolutely be a hero.”

Izuku grinned at him. Of course, he could be a hero. Korosensei was quirkless. Korosensei was the freaking _Reaper._ His grin fell. “Is that why they chose to use you for the testing?” he asked. It would make sense. They wouldn’t have to worry about how quirks affected it if they used a quirkless person. Izuku watched Korosensei’s face fall.

“Yes, unfortunately.”

How many… how many quirkless people wound up like that? Izuku felt sick.

“Midoriya-kun,” Korosensei spoke up, “please, do not look into that. At least, not right now. We both know this society has its faults, and that it is stained in blood, but let this subject rest. For your own sake.”

Izuku nodded, swallowing down the rush of anger, disgust, and fear. Leave the problem alone. Just let sleeping dogs lie. It would be fine. Most modern research wasn’t conducted like that anyway. If you want to know how something affects people, you can’t afford to ignore quirks. “Right,” he sighed. “Thanks for telling me, Korosensei.”

Korosensei ruffled his hair again. “Of course, Midoriya-kun.”


End file.
